Style Key & Glossary

Short Description & Important Notes would be found here.

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Name of the Skill Line
Required Skill Level	Skill Name	Benefit	Cost
skill level when can be used if skill points are invested	Active Skill's Name (range: ? meters, radius: ? meters)	Description of old stuff they removed from the skill this quarter new changes with most recent quarterly update, healing effects & protective benefits done, benefits to Magicka-based characters, benefits to Stamina-based characters, heals which target only oneself and defensive benefits oriented toward the role of tank. Allies can use Name of synergy to do yadda, yadda, yadda.	cost to Magicka
Morph Option 1	Skill's Name when Morphed to Option 1	Description of how the skill differs from the base skill, healing effects & protective benefits done, benefits to Magicka-based characters, benefits to Stamina-based characters, heals which target only oneself and defensive benefits oriented toward the role of tank, old stuff they removed from the skill this quarter new changes with the most recent quarterly update. Allies instead can use Name of synergy to do yadda, yadda.	cost to Magicka
Morph Option 2	Skill's Name when Morphed to Option 2	Damage might change to: Magic Damage, Flame Damage, Frost Damage, Shock Damage, Physical Damage, Poison Damage, Disease Damage, Oblivion Damage, or Unspecified Damage. Allies instead can use Name of synergy to do yadda, yadda.	cost to Stamina
skill level when can be used if skill points are invested	Passive Skill	Description of how the skill differs from the base skill, healing effects & protective benefits done, benefits to Magicka-based characters, benefits to Stamina-based characters, heals which target only oneself and defensive benefits oriented toward the role of tank, old stuff they removed from the skill this quarter new changes with the most recent quarterly update.	Passive
skill level when can be used if skill points are invested	Passive Skill	Often passive skills increase a certain type of damage, such as: Magic Damage, Flame Damage, Frost Damage, Shock Damage, Physical Damage, Poison Damage, Disease Damage, Oblivion Damage, or Unspecified Damage.	Passive
skill level when can be used if skill points are invested	Ultimate Skill	Description with old stuff they removed from the skill this quarter new changes introduced with most recent quarterly update. Damage can be: Magic Damage, Flame Damage, Frost Damage, Shock Damage, Physical Damage, Poison Damage, Disease Damage, Oblivion Damage, or Unspecified Damage. Allies can use Name of synergy to do yadda, yadda, yadda.	cost to Ultimate
Morph Option 1	Ultimate Name Morphed to Option 1	Damage might change to: Magic Damage, Flame Damage, Frost Damage, Shock Damage, Physical Damage, Poison Damage, Disease Damage, Oblivion Damage, or Unspecified Damage. Allies can instead now use Name of synergy to do yadda, yadda & yadda.	cost to Ultimate
Morph Option 2	Ultimate Name Morphed to Option 2	Description of how the skill differs from the base skill, healing effects & protective benefits done, benefits to Magicka-based characters, benefits to Stamina-based characters, heals which target only oneself and defensive benefits oriented toward the role of tank, old stuff they removed from the skill this quarter new changes with the most recent quarterly update. Allies can instead now use Name of synergy to do yadda, yadda & yadda.	cost to Ultimate

In tables such as the one above all values reflect the ability and/or morph once it is fully trained which sometimes differs from earlier costs, durations, or damage values. All costs and damage values are without attribute points placed, without equipment, without passive skills acquired or active skills slotted and without champion points spent to make it easier to compare skills regardless of gear/build differences.

Since Mundus buffs can be changed but not removed, either no mundus buff was in place (template character on PTS) or the Lover mundus (which only alters penetration) was used.

Remember that if a skill costs Magicka, it scales with your maximum Magicka (and Spell Damage) while if a skill costs Stamina, it scales with your maximum Stamina (and Weapon Damage). Ultimate abilities and Synergies scale with the combination that provides you with the best offensive stats.

Glossary

Active Skill: An Active Skill must be placed on the toolbar to be used. It will only trigger when you press the associated toolbar shortcut. Some active skills have no cost to use them, these have this appearance on this site: Toggled Skill or Skill without Cost. Most active skills cost either Magicka or Stamina to use, although a few damage your Health instead.
AoE: Area of Effect damage/healing will target all who are within a given space described by a rectangle, by a radius (within x meters of your location or a target location), or by a cone (in front of you within radius of x meters). Stamina-based AoEs can be dodged, but Magicka-based AoEs cannot.
AP: Alliance Points are gained in various PvP activities.
Arena: Similar to a Trial as a difficult closed-instance test of survival and skill, but designed for smaller groups of 4 players (except Maelstrom Arena which is a solo instance).
Bash: Standard Bash attacks are used to interrupt channeling enemies. By default this occurs by holding the right mouse button down while you click the left button.
Bleed: A type of Physical Damage over Time which bypasses Physical Resistance.
Blind: Causes attacks to miss.
Block: Even if you take partial damage from the ability, blocking negates all CC except being Feared, Roared, or Petrified.
Break Free: Remove Stun, Disorient, or Knockdown effects at the cost of Stamina. Also grants 7 seconds of immunity to Crowd Control effects.
CC: Crowd Control actions that are more oriented toward helping the party kill the target rather than you damaging the target directly. Examples would be immobilizations, snares, stuns, etc. Soft CC impedes Movement while Hard CC disables the enemy in some form.
CP: Champion Points are the "leveling mechanism" after reaching level 50 and are shared account-wide. Thus, once your account earns Champion Points they may be spent on each of your characters, even when under level 50. There are 3 types of Champion Points, Warrior/Thief/Mage, to be spread over 9 CP constellations. Each constellation has 4 skills and also grants a passively acquired benefit upon investing 10, 30, 75, 120 CP into that particular skill set.
Direct Damage: Direct damage is done only upon one chosen target. The Damage Done can still have any Damage Type or Subtype.
Disease Damage: A subtype of physical damage scaling with Max Stamina & Weapon Damage inflicted most often by Undead, the Foulness weapon enchantment (often on a bow), or some Nightblade & Werewolf skills.
Dodge: Roll Dodging breaks soft CC at the cost of Stamina; by default double-tapping a movement key (WASD) will Roll Dodge in that direction. Stamina-based AoEs can be Dodged, but Magicka-based AoEs cannot; most single target abilities can be Dodged.
DoT: Damage over Time
Dungeon, Group: A closed instance adventure designed for 4 players and accessible through Pledges and/or Group Finder; the final boss in these locations drops headgear from a Monster set.
Dungeon, Public: An open instance exploration zone with a group activity, several bosses, and large groups of enemies.
Equipment Set: Gear sets give special bonuses based on how many pieces of the given set you are currently wearing. Although crafted sets can be made in any weight most sets can only be acquired in one given armor-weight. Crafted sets are often the most easily acquired pieces as you only need to ask a guildie for assitance, hence our site marks their appearance by underlining the Crafted Set Name.

Because heavy armor gives Health benefits useful for tanks this site uses a red font to describe these skills & sets. Since medium armor is well-suited to Stamina-based builds this site uses a darker green font when naming these sets & skills. Similarly, because light armor benefits Magicka-based builds these sets & skills are shown in dark blue.

Monster sets are the most powerful armor sets in the game and are only available in 2 pieces: head & shoulders. There are a few sets are available with benefits for up to 3 pieces, but the vast majority of sets grant the most benefit when wearing 5 pieces of the set.
Flame Damage: A subtype of magical damage scaling with Max Magicka & Spell Damage from Flame Atronachs among other enemies, Inferno staves, the Fire weapon enchantment, and some skills among Dragonknights or from the Mages Guild or the Templar's Sun Fire skill.
Frost Damage: A subtype of magical damage scaling with Max Magicka & Spell Damage from Frost Atronachs, Ice Staves, the Frost weapon enchantment, and some Warden skills or the Mage's Guild Ice Comet skill.
Group Dungeon: A closed instance adventure designed for 4 players and accessible through Pledges and/or Group Finder; the final boss in these locations drops headgear from a Monster set.
Group Finder: An often ailing tool to randomly form a Pick-Up Group for 4-person Dungeons.
Heavy Attack: Heavy Attacks deal less damage than Light Attacks but also restore resources (staves restore Magicka, other weapons restore Stamina).
HoT: Heal over Time
Immovability, aka Immune to Knockback & Disabling Effects: (visual: swirling wind around character) Gained automatically at the end of hard CC, the Heavy Armor skill Immovable, or potions. Does not block soft CC.
Interrupt: To interrupt a caster who is channeling/casting or any charcter that is charging a Heavy Attack, use the same combination as Bash (by default, click left mouse button while holding right mouse button). If the enemy is interrupted then they will be set Off Balance.
Invisibility: While you cannot be seen you can avoid taking Direct Damage but not AoE effects.
In Combat: For the duration another target is aggro-ed upon you (and sometimes a short duration afterward), the edges of your screen will glow red. Some actions cannot be taken while in combat (changing gear aside from weapon-swapping, changing skills slotted on the toolbars, calling forth your mount, etc.
Light Attack: Light Attacks deal significant damage and so are normally "woven" (alternated) with Active Skill abilities. By default you Light Attack with a click of the left mouse button.
Magic Damage: A basic type of damage that scales based off Max Magicka and Spell Damage; subtypes include: Flame Damage, Frost Damage, Shock Damage.
Melee: Combat with a target who is within 5 meters, except never with a bow or stave regardless of distance.
Oblivion Damage: A damage type which cannot be Blocked or Shielded and bypasses all resistances but is not possible to Critical Strike. It deals damage as a percentage of a target's Max Health with a damage cap to prevent obscene damage against Elite enemies.
Passive Skill: A skill whose benefit begins simply by placing the skill point. Its effects are always active as decribed without taking up space on your toolbar. The names of passive skills discussed on this site have the following appearance: Skill Name.
Physical Damage: A basic type of damage which scales based off Max Stamina and Weapon Damage; comes in 3 subtypes as well: Bleeding, Disease Damage, Poison Damage.
Pledge: A special type of quest from the Undaunted enclave which sends you into a 4-person Dungeon adventure.
Poison Damage: A subtype of physical damage scaling with Max Stamina & Weapon Damage which comes from spiders, the Poison weapn enchantment (often placed on main hand weapon), ravage health poisons, or various Bow skills & Dragonknight morphs.
Proc: Short for "Procedural Random Occurance", which means an effect that activates based on the whim of Random Number Gods.
Public Dungeon: An open instance exploration zone with a group activity, several bosses, and large groups of enemies.
PuG: PuG stands for Pick-up Group which is essentially random strangers doing a quest together. Warning: these can be harmful for your mental health.
Quality of Items: The color of an item's name reflects its current quality; you can upgrade an item to a higher quality at crafting stations. The key here is Legendary > Epic > Superior > Fine > Base

Many players simply wear epic gear until they are sure of their build and equipment as upgrading gear to legendary quality can be quite expensive. While leveling a character, blue gear is more than adequate. Set gear always drops in at least green quality. Items whose names appear in white are useful for trait research, deconstruction, or a little gold by selling to a NPC vendor.
Reflect: Instead of suffering CC or Damage you reflect the effect back upon the caster.
Shock Damage: A subtype of magical damage scaling with Max Magicka & Spell Damage used by Storm Atronachs, lightning staves, the Shock weapon enchantment, or various Sorcerer skills and pets.
Snare: An ability which slows the Movement Speed the target(s); the percentage slowed and duration will vary.
Stealth: Stealth is sneaking without drawing the attention of those around you; moving while in stealth slowly drains Stamina and is at a slower Movement Speed. By default you sneak/crouch by pressing the Ctrl button, although some skills or potions also can grant Invisibility. Attacks you make from Stealth automatically Critical Strike.
Synergy: Some skills offer a secondary effect that can be activated by an ally after you use the Active Skill with which it is associated.
Taunt: Force the enemy to attack you for 15 seconds.
Trial: A difficult 12-person closed-instance test of survival and skill.
TV: Tel Var Stones are a type of in-game currency acquired in the Imperial City.
Ultimate: Ultimate is gained primarily by Light and Heavy Attacks (3 Ultimate per second for 9 seconds after a Light or Heavy Attack), although you also gain Ultimate by healing a player who is generating Ultimate at the same rate they are or through some passives or effects such as Major Heroism. When you have enough earned you can spend it on a very special and more powerful skill from your skill lines; using an Ultimate ability completely drains all your saved Ultimate; the lower costing abilities are designed to be available more quickly/frequently, not to be used sequentially. Once you gain 500 Ultimate points you will not gain any more until after you deplete some. References to Ultimate skills or generation of Ultimate on this site have the following appearance: Ultimate
Weapon Swapping: An ability unlocked at character level 15 which allows you to use 2 different weapon sets each with its own associated toolbar. You can change between Weapon 1 & its toolbar to/from Weapon 2 & its toolbar at any time, even in combat. This effectively doubles the number of usable skills at a given instant from the standard 1 Ultimate + 5 Active Skills on a single toolbar. Both toolbars can use the same type of weapon (although you'll need a second item for the alternate weapon slots) and different skills or an altogether different type of weapon and skills. If you weapon swap after using a skill, the damage and effects continue to be calculated as if you were still on the bar which triggered the skill.

Common Acronyms for Various PvE Locations

For PvP locations, see our Guide to the Alliance War

AA: Aetherian Archive (Trial in Craglorn)
Arx: Arx Corinium (Group Dungeon in Shadowfen)
AS: Asylum Sanctorium (Trial in Clockwork City)
BC: Banished Cells (Group Dungeon in Auridon) or Blessed Crucible (Group Dungeon in The Rift)
BH: Blackheart Haven (Group Dungeon in Bangkorai)
CoA: City of Ash (Group Dungeon in Greenshade)
CoH: Crypt of Hearts (Group Dungeon in Rivenspire)
CwC: Clockwork City (DLC Zone)
DFK: Dire Frost Keep (Group Dungeon in Eastmarch)
DSA: Dragonstar Arena
DSC: Darkshade Caverns (Group Dungeon in Deshaan)
EH: Elden Hollow (Group Dungeon in Grahtwood)
FG: Fungal Grotto (Group Dungeon in Stonefalls)
HRC: Hel Ra Citadel (Trial in Craglorn)
HoF: Halls of Fabrication (Trial in Vvardenfell)
HoTR: Horns of the Reach DLC
ICP: Imperial City Prison (Group Dungeon in the Imperial City)
MA: Maelstrom Arena (Solo Arena in Wrothgar)
Nyz: Nyzchaleft Falls (Location of World Boss in Wrothgar)
Poa: Poacher's Camp (Location of a World Boss in Wrothgar)
SO: Sanctum Ophidia (Trial in Craglorn)
Spindle: Spindleclutch (Group Dungeon in Glenumbra)
SW: Selene's Web (Group Dungeon in Reaper's March)
TI: Tempest Island (Group Dungeon in Malabal Tor)
VF: Volenfell (Group Dungeon in Alik'r Desert)
VoM: Vaults of Madness (Group Dungeon in Coldharbour)
WGT: White-Gold Tower (Group Dungeon in the Imperial City)
WS: Wayrest Sewers (Group Dungeon in Stormhaven)

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